Haunted (Discontinued)
by VelvetNixie
Summary: He pretended not to care whenever Dirk lost his job for the umpteenth time, moving to another city, another apartment, another school. Luckily, Dirk had managed to be promoted, the outcome of which meant they moved again to a Victorian style manse in what seemed like a stiflingly small town. He loved it, until he found out that it was haunted. (Rated T for possible language)
1. Prologue

Dave did not like their new house.

He didn't have anything against the style or layout or anything; those were all fine. No, there was a much larger problem at hand.

Dave had moved into the house in early August with his older brother, Dirk. Dirk, whom Dave usually just called Bro, had had custody over Dave for three years, after their alcoholic father had died in a car accident. Their mother had divorced their father a year before the accident, taking Dave's older sister Rose with her. In his grief at losing both his beloved wife and only daughter, their father had turned to alcohol to 'wash the sadness away', as he told the two brothers. His drinking problem steadily grew worse over time, resulting in his death.

However, Dave preferred not to think of the dwindling number of family members living with him. He mostly spent his time shut in his room, messaging his sister and absorbing himself into irony and music. He pretended not to care whenever Dirk lost his job for the umpteenth time, moving to another city, another apartment, another school. Luckily, Dirk had managed to be promoted, the outcome of which meant they moved again to a Victorian style manse in what seemed like a stiflingly small town compared to all the cities they had lived in. Dave loved it, exulted in it, almost ran from room to room jumping and screaming like a little kid (his irony prevented himself from actually doing it).

He loved it, until he found out that it was haunted.

**(A/N: Not really sure where exactly I'm going with this story or how long it's going to be. All I have planned is the beginning and the end.**

**If anyone reads this crappy prologue, please review and suggest a Dave ship that I can use. I can't decide on one (or think of one, for that matter). The only ships that will not work are DaveRose (since they're siblings and don't live anywhere near each other) and Stridercest (because I just don't feel it right now).**


	2. Attics and Apparitions

Dave dropped his bags loudly on the wooden floors of his room on his way to the window. Looking out of said window, he swallowed nervously at the drop below. Bro had never gotten an apartment above the second floor before, knowing Dave's trepidation for heights. Now, looking down at the four story drop…

Tearing himself away from the window hastily, Dave examined the room. It was fairly large, recently remodeled to have a private bathroom and walk-in closet. The ceiling sloped in slightly, as the room was at the very top of the house. The faded wallpaper on the walls and the hollow emptiness of the room gave it a very desolate feel, making Dave shiver. He moved his bags to a corner of the room, unpacking his red sleeping bag and spreading it out along the wall. He had used it so many times while moving to different places that it was ratty and worn, the maroon gear on the front discolored and washed out. He couldn't bring himself to replace it though; it was one of the constants in his ever-changing life.

Straightening, Dave left his room. Where was Bro? He needed to ask him when the moving truck was getting here with all of their furniture and few belongings. After checking all the rooms on the lower three floors with no success, Dave returned to the much smaller fourth floor that consisted of only his suite and another room that they planned to use as a game room. Reaching underneath his black triangular shades to rub his eyes wearily, Dave sat down on the floor of the game room and stared up at the ceiling.

_Hang on… _Dave stood, continuing to examine the ceiling. _Why isn't this ceiling slanted like the one in my room?_ _And why isn't it nearly as peaked?_ He crossed the hallway to his room and studied the ceiling there again. Yes, there was most definitely a difference between the heights. With a sudden flash of inspiration, Dave checked the ceilings of his bathroom and closet as well. The bathroom's ceiling was normal, but in the corner of the ceiling in the closet, Dave found a small trapdoor, painted to match the rest of the ceiling. He stretched out uncomfortably on his toes, trying to reach the short cord that hung beneath the door. After a few painful moments, he was able to wildly snatch the cord and pull the door down, barely dodging the wooden ladder that fell down along side it. He climbed up the ladder—determinedly not looking down—and found himself in a small, musty attic that was completely empty. The roof had a gradual slant, making Dave crawl to reach the middle of the room, where he could barely stand straight. The sunlight shone through a small window, the golden halo of light resting at his feet.

There he sat, in the calming sunlight and silence, looking at nothing in particular, his shades folded neatly in front of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flash golden, most definitely not sunlight. Motionless, he frantically tried to see it again. He relaxed, assuming that it was just his imagination, that or sunspots dancing in his vision.

Then he saw it again, more clearly.

Dave slowly moved to sit against a wall, leaving his shades in the middle of the room.

The golden blur focused into a person.

Dave almost gasped, recognizing it to be an older version of himself. He wasn't truly golden in coloring; there was a slight orange tint. The face was more gaunt, and instead of Dave's triangular shades that were identical to Bro's, the older Dave wore large aviators. Orange, feathery wings sprouted from the older Dave's back, giving him the appearance of a golden transparent angel.

_~Hello Dave._

"Bro…" Dave croaked, shrinking into the wall as the older Dave came closer.

_~He won't be able to see me. Only you can see me, because I am you._

"What… how…?"

_~As you can probably see for yourself, I am an older version of you._

"Well no shit, Sherlock." At last, Dave was able to regain both his voice and his sarcasm.

The older Dave showed absolutely no emotion, resembling the real Dave in yet another way. _~You won't be so cocky when you find out how I exist. But I guess you are too busy being sarcastic and a cool kid to even care. You'll be left wondering… _The apparition began to float away.

Dave ground his teeth, having used the exact same tactic to gain others' interest, and disliked having it used against him. "Fine, why are you here?"

Swishing his swirly ghost tail that replaced his legs, the older Dave nonchalantly adjusted his shades and folded his arms. _~Oh you know, just dropping by to teach my younger self some manners and to say hello._ Sarcasm permeated his tone, causing Dave to clench his fists at his sides in frustration.

"Oh older Dave, do tell me what you have to tell me?" He answered sarcasm with barely contained sarcasm, the closest he could get to being polite to someone who annoyed him, but had something he needed.

_~First of all, older Dave is much too… I don't know… formal. I want it to seem like we're friends here. Call me Davesprite. _The ghost smirked, waiting for Dave to tersely nod before continuing. _~I guess that the message I have for you is that you will become me in less than a year._

Dave, once again, was lost for words. After a long pause, he demanded, "What do you mean?"

_~I mean that within a year, you will die, dipshit. _

Dave didn't answer, choosing to remain silent until Davesprite became bored with his deadpan and disappeared. Lost in his own thoughts, Dave didn't notice when the sun set, or when the sunlight was replaced with moonlight. The only thing that broke his pensive mood was the sound of Bro ascending the ladder.

"Hey lil' man, I've been looking all over for you. " When Dave didn't respond, Bro picked up the shades lying in the middle of the room and placed them back on his face. "Look, I know you're bummed out about the move, but I promise you that this'll be the last one, okay?" Dave swallowed, then nodded. Bro continued, "Now, is there another reason why you're sitting in the attic?"

Opening his mouth, Dave considered spilling the whole entire story to his attentive older brother. However, he closed it again just as quickly. He already knew what Bro would say, that Striders didn't see future dead selves, and to pull himself back together and push it out of his mind. He also didn't want to worry him about it. Bro had too many lost family members as it was, and Dave had always been closest to his heart. Dave would protect Bro, in the way that Bro had protected him for as long as he could remember.

Getting up slowly, Dave turned to lead the way out of the attic. "C'mon, let's go order a pizza or something."


	3. Dave: Meet John

Dave spent the next few weeks before school started pretending that the meeting with Davesprite had never happened. Occasionally an orange smirk would flash at him in his peripheral vision, but other than that, there were no further visits from the orange ghost. Dave drove the message out of his mind, busying himself with unpacking various boxes. Or, at least, he did until Bro kicked him out of the house with a command of "Go meet people."

Under a bright summer sun, Dave aimlessly wandered along the sidewalk, not really sure where he was going. Eventually he managed to navigate his way out of the upper-class neighborhoods that his house was in and towards the center of the town. Dave finally stopped walking when he reached what looked like to be the hangout for teenagers. It was a small complex, consisting of an undersized movie theater, a library, a fancy Italian restaurant, a much more casual Chinese restaurant, and a convenience store. Across the street, there was a very green park, with trees dotting the grass and a gravel walkway winding its way through the park. Close by, sitting on the grass, was a group of four teenagers that appeared to be Dave's age. Dave decided to keep exploring the town, but his plans were waylaid by one of the boys in the group looking over.

"Hey!" he called out, waving Dave over. "You're new around here, aren't you? I haven't seen you before!" Dave walked over to the group.

The other boy in the group glanced at Dave and growled ill-temperedly, "What the fuck is wrong with your face, jackass?"

"I don't see anything wrong with it." A girl with strawberry blonde hair and stylish red tinted glasses sniffed wildly around.

"Of course you can't, you're blind," laughed the final member of the group, also a girl.

The second boy, the grouchy one, spoke up again, "Seriously though, what the fuck is wrong with it? It's completely emotionless."

"Guys don't be rude," chastised the first boy, before turning back to Dave. "I'm John."

"Dave." He introduced himself with a slight jerk of his head.

John introduced the rest of his friends. "This is Karkat,"—the grumpy boy huffed and looked away in irritation—"this is Terezi,"—the blind girl grinned—"and this is my cousin, Jade." The second girl smiled and waved.

Terezi continued to sniff the air, apparently trying to sniff Dave out. With a smile she got to her feet and, with her nose leading the way, walked over to where Dave stood. Without warning, she licked his cheek. "You taste like apple juice and irony." Both John and Jade burst into laughter, but Karkat just muttered incoherently under his breath. Terezi laughed along with them, obviously enjoying being the jokester of the group, and flopped back down on the grass between Jade and Karkat.

Laughter dying away, John looked up at Dave and patted the grass next to him. Dave sat down, John on his left and Karkat on his right. Karkat shifted away subtly, moving closer to Terezi. Much to Karkat's chagrin, John proceeded to barrage Dave with questions as soon as he sat down. Within only a few minutes, John had determined when exactly Dave moved, that they were going to the same high school, that they were in the same grade, and that they were both seventeen. Somehow they had also managed to cover half of their life stories and their full names.

"How many questions are you going to ask me, Egderp?" groaned Dave, flopping back on the grass.

"Only one more, I promise!" laughed John. It was like this kid never stopped smiling. He also didn't notice, or didn't care about the slightly mocking nickname Dave had given him in reference to his last name. "Where do you live?" Dave told John his address, and John gasped excitedly. "You live down the street that I live on! We should have a sleepover tonight at my house! We can play video games and I can tell you about school and…" He continued to prattle on happily, not even pausing to let Dave respond to the invitation.

"Well isn't this fucking wonderful?" Karkat cut John off in the middle of mid-fantasy. "Go have a little gay party at John's house."

John looked at him with the expression of a puppy that had just been kicked. "I am not—"

"A homosexual, yeah that's what they all fucking say."

Dave examined the raging boy from behind the protection of his shades. He wasn't sure if Karkat was angry at the fact of being left out or something else. Karkat hugged his knees, still fuming. He was startling small for someone their age, only coming up to John's ear and Dave's shoulder. His messy brown hair framed his face in slight waves, obviously not brushed or bothered with. His skin tone was somewhere in between Dave's pale skin and John's dark sun kissed skin, huge brown eyes blinking from a femininely shaped face. His baggy sweatshirt was out of place in the t-shirts and tank-tops everybody else was wearing in the stifling August heat. A twinge of curiosity stirred in Dave. Why was Karkat wearing a sweater in the middle of August?

"Are you coming Dave?" John looked at him with a pleading look in his eyes.

Damn. It wasn't like he could say no after that outburst from Karkat, and that kicked puppy look didn't help either. "Yeah, sure, just let me run it by my bro first."

"Do you want to come too, Karkat?" All previous offence forgotten, John's smile was like a flashlight pointed in the eyes.

"Why the fuck would I want to have a sleepover with you two?"

"Come on, Karkat," wheedled Terezi. "You barely ever leave the house. You should go. I was having a sleepover with Aradia and Vriska tonight anyway."

Karkat groaned. "Fine, I'll come."

And so Dave was roped into having a sleepover with one person who acted like a nine-year-old boy, and another person who, like Dave, didn't really want to be there.


	4. A Visit to John's House

Dave knocked on John's door, holding a backpack and his red sleeping bag. John immediately flung open the door, a grin plastered to his face. "You're here!" he squeaked, pulling an unenthusiastic Dave towards him into a hug. If only Bro had let him skip out, but Dave's older brother had practically shoved him out the door, saying that it was great that he had new friends and how he and his new boyfriend, Jake, would get a "night to themselves." If Dave knew his brother, Dave knew exactly what his brother would be doing that night.

Looking around John's house, Dave set his bags down by the staircase that dominated most of the high-ceilinged foyer. John's house was modest compared to Dave's, yet it was still an upper-class house. It was much more modern than Dave's, with an open floor plan and new furniture. For some reason, clowns were the main decoration; they covered almost every available surface. There were clown pictures in between family portraits in the hall, clown statues next to an urn on the mantle over the fireplace and on the shelves, even a stuffed clown in a corner.

As John welcomed Karkat in with a tackle hug, Dave asked, "What's up with all the creepy clowns?"

John rolled his eyes. "They're called harlequins. Ever since I said I liked clowns when I was like, five, my dad has been filling the house with them. It's getting kind of annoying."

Dave quirked an eyebrow over his shades, slightly irritated at John's lack of appreciation for his father's effort. "It sounds like a better deal than my sister Rose."

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah, she's a freshman in college." Dave shrugged. "My mom has a drinking problem and apparently fills the house with wizards."

Karkat, who already looked bored, flopped down on the couch. "So are you fuckasses just going to fucking talk the whole time or go do something that's actually interesting?"

John beckoned Dave and Karkat upstairs. "Let's go play video games!" Carrying their bags, Dave and Karkat followed John up the stairs to his room. John's room was large, even larger than Dave's, with posters of terrible movies plastered to the walls. A silver laptop—it would have looked more impressive if a large picture of Bill Cosby had not been taped on top—sat on a plain white desk in one corner, A large flat screen TV stood opposite the bed, with multiple game consoles piled carelessly near it. A bookshelf was pushed against one wall next to a window. There was only one book on the bookshelf—a large tome titled Colonel Sassacre's Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery—the rest of the space was taken up by various CD games for a computer.

"So what do you guys want to play?" John asked, flopping on his bed. Karkat didn't reply and wandered over to the window, with an uninterested expression. Dave shrugged, setting his bags at the end of the bed. John, looking disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm, or in Karkat's case, interest, got off the bed and started to sort through the games by the flat screen. "I've got Call of Duty, Halo, Ghostbusters…"

Karkat growled crossly. "Do we have to play video games? You always win."

"Come on Karkat," John pouted. "I'm just trying to be a good host."

"Well fuck that, I'd be home right now if my sister hadn't invited a whole bunch of her friends over."

Dave groaned. "Will you both shut up? So much bullshit is pouring out of both of your mouths, and as long as we're here" he shot a pointed look at Karkat "we might as well fucking enjoy ourselves." Thoroughly chastised, both John and Karkat looked in opposite directions. An uncomfortable silence filled the room until a call came from downstairs.

"John, dinner's ready. Bring your friends down and introduce them."

John's dad was the most stereotypical father figure anyone could imagine, even Dave, who hadn't really known what a normal functioning family was like. He informed Dave to call him "Dad", reminded Karkat to do the same after his forcedly polite "Hello, Mr. Egbert". Ruffling John's hair affectionately, he turned to pull a homemade cheese pizza out of one oven, setting it behind him with one hand, and opened another oven to reveal a cake. He surveyed the cake for a few seconds before closing the oven again and setting the timer for another 10 minutes. His bustling activity in the kitchen gave Dave a chance to examine what a normal father was supposed to look like.

Mr. Egbert wore a typical office outfit: khaki pants and a white button down collared shirt with a black tie. A fedora was perched loosely atop of his head, his shoes freshly shined. He was very tall; he towered over John and Karkat, who were both barely over 5'3", and even Dave, who was considerably taller than his two new friends. He was a lot like John, except for the fact that he loved baking and was over six feet tall.

Dave sat with Karkat at the table, taking a slice of the pizza and starting to devour it hungrily. John joined them, carrying three cans of some drink called Faygo. Mr. Egbert sat down directly across from Dave, the shadow from his fedora obscuring his eyes mysteriously.

"So, Dave, tell me all about you."

Yup. Definitely a lot like John.

Dinner passed at a snail's pace, mostly due to the fact that Mr. Egbert had questioned Dave about every aspect of his life. As soon as they had finished eating the cake—John eating it rather reluctantly—they had retreated upstairs, back to the dilemma of choosing what to do next.

John was sprawled on the bed, supporting his chin with one hand. "So we agreed that we aren't going to play video games."

"Why are you repeating everything we say, fuckass?" Karkat snapped, sitting on the desk.

"Why don't we play a game of some sort?" Dave regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth due to the scathing look Karkat gave him.

Unfortunately, John loved the idea. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?" he enthused, jumping off of his bed. "How about this; we play Twister, but if someone looses, they have to answer two questions or perform two dares from each the caller and the winner."

Karkat nodded tersely, while Dave shrugged. "Fine with me. I always win."

It was decided that Dave and Karkat would compete first with John calling the commands. Dave glanced at Karkat with a smirk. "Prepare to lose."

"Suck my—."

John hastily cut off Karkat's reply with the first command, "Left foot, red!"

Ten minutes later, Dave and Karkat were still playing, arms and legs tangled, neither giving in to the other. John, enjoying the tension far more than he should, spun the pointer one last time and called out the winning—or the fatal, depending on who you were—command. "Left hand, yellow."

Karkat swung his hand across both of Dave's arms, sweeping them out from underneath him, causing Dave to collapse painfully on the mat, Karkat falling on top of him only a few seconds later. John giggled. "I declare Karkat the winner! Karkat, you go first, I need to think."

Dave stiffly extracted himself from Karkat, muscles, shoulders, and knees aching from maintaining the uncomfortable positions for so long. Karkat sat up, rubbing his back, grimacing, and studied Dave apathetically. "So do you want a question or a dare?"

"I really couldn't care less."

"Fine, I'll ask a fucking question then." Karkat paused, thinking. "Why do you wear those dumbass sunglasses?"

"My eyes are really sensitive to sunlight." Dave answered simply, turning to John.

John flushed lightly, trying to look nonchalant but really just looking embarrassed. "I… I dare you to kiss me?"


End file.
